Possibiliti/ of Tea Cultivation in America, 511 



per lb. for one description, which fetches 25. per lb. in the 

 London market. Tliat grown in Java has hitherto been 

 viewed with disfavour in Europe, but in a few years more it 

 must make its way. The result of the experiments in the 

 United States we liave yet to learn. Mr. Fortune, who was 

 intrusted by the Patent Office at Washington with superin- 

 tending the introduction of the tea cultivation into the South- 

 ern States, and who in vii'tue of many years' scientific 

 researches in China may be regarded as an authority upon 

 this subject, is of opinion that the possibility of cultivating 

 tea in the United States does not admit of a doubt, since the 

 plant not only successfully resists frosts, but even, in a mea- 

 sure, benefits by them, it being a well-known fact that it 

 flourishes better in the northern than the southern climates of 

 China. It is questionablcj however, whether its cultivation 

 can prove remunerative in a country where labour is still so 

 exceptionally high. Will the tea plant repay the immense cost 

 of cultivation, and compete successfully with the product of 

 China ?, The next few years will settle this question, if it be 

 not choked by this unholy fratricidal war, which is raging 

 within the freest and ^most glorious confederacy of modern 

 times. 



We enjoyed the good '^ fortune" while at Shanghai of becom- 

 ing personally acquainted with Mr. Fortune, and of gathering 

 these valuable particulars from the very lips of that distin- 

 guished naturalist and traveller. While reserving for consider- 

 ation elsewhere the subject of various little known, but most 



